Press release 4 February 2013 The Court will decide if Aorangi investors get the cash

Press release
4 February 2013The Court will decide if Aorangi investors get the cash

The ownership of the “introduced assets” is the most important outstanding issue to be resolved in order to return a significant percentage of capital to Aorangi investors.

The statutory managers believe Aorangi investors could get almost all of their investment capital back if the managers are successful in the Court hearing set down for 20 May 2013 in the Timaru High Court. If not, then Aorangi investors will only get around 35 cents in the dollar, including the 15 cents already paid out which is just $34 million in total

During the period from April 2009 to March 2010, Mr and Mrs Hubbard introduced assets into Aorangi. They did so in their personal capacities, as trustees of various trusts and as company shareholders and directors. Those assets were in the form of shares and loans in farm owning companies, partnerships and commercial entities. There are some 34 separate entities involved with the assets having an estimated current value of approximately $60 million.

“We are now at the point where we have completed a full overview of the history of Aorangi and of its failure. As this matter is before the Court we are unable to provide investors with much of the detail of our case. However, our legal advisers believe our case is strong. We have provided the High Court with affidavits which outline Aorangi’s history and our conclusions, based on the evidence we have found, as to why assets were introduced in 2009 and 2010”.

“To further protect Aorangi investors we have also asked the Court to rule that Mr and Mrs Hubbard are only paid for the assets they introduced after the claims of investors have been met,” say the Grant Thornton statutory managers in their 13th Report to investors.

“We have made progress in ‘cashing up’ many of these investments and await the outcome of the Court hearing but there are still some loans remaining to secure on behalf of investors, including loans to Te Tua Charitable Trust and other South Island farming interests, and $61.5m in capital from the “introduced assets”. Negotiations or Court actions to recover the loans are well advanced.